Median

A modest increase in average home prices in November is the first upturn for the Baltimore region in more than a year, but beleaguered homeowners shouldn't cheer just yet. Though prices rose almost 1 percent on average compared with a year earlier, the median price - another common measure - fell 2.5 percent, according to numbers released Monday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. The diverging price measures are one symptom of a still-rough housing market trying to battle back to normal.

The body of an unidentified man was found early Sunday on the median strip near a Giant Food store in Owings Mills, and police believe he may have died of natural causes, Baltimore County police said. The man's body was found in the 9900 block of Reisterstown Road, around 8 a.m. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine a cause of death, authorities said. As part of its preliminary investigation, police do not suspect foul play. Gus.sentementes@baltsun.com Twitter.com/gussent Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

A Lansdowne woman was killed and a passenger injured Wednesday night when a car lost control on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Hanover Road, according to Maryland State Police. Troopers responded at 8:33 p.m. to the scene of the collision. Frances Verleysen, 52, was driving southbound on the parkway when he lost control of his 1998 Toyota Camry, according to police. The sedan crossed the median and struck a Chevrolet Geo Metro traveling northbound. Stacey Mechell Altvater, 46, was pronounced dead at the scene, but a passenger in her vehicle was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening, according to police.

Baltimore City firefighters responded Sunday to a single-vehicle accident on Perring Parkway in which several passengers, including teenagers and children, were ejected from a sport utility vehicle and had life-threatening injuries. Eight medic units from Baltimore County and the city went to Perring Parkway and Woodburn Avenue about 6 p.m. and began treating eight patients who were scattered around the scene, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department.

Interest rates and home prices haven't fallen far enough to put homeownership within reach of many moderate-income workers in the Baltimore metro area, a new study suggests. A buyer making a 10 percent down payment would need to earn $70,000 a year to afford the Baltimore area's median home price of $235,000, according to a report released Tuesday by the Center for Housing Policy. Police and elementary school teachers make about $52,000, the nonprofit research group said. Nurses earn about $41,000.

Home prices fell in nearly nine out of every 10 U.S. cities in the fourth quarter of last year as low-cost foreclosures flooded the market and the housing market's decline spread nationwide. The National Association of Realtors said yesterday that median sales prices of existing homes declined in 134 out of 153 metropolitan areas compared with the corresponding period in 2007. Sales fell in all but six states. Nationwide, the median sales price was $180,100, down 12.4 percent from a year ago. But price declines of 30 percent or more were found in much of California, plus parts of Michigan, Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

The problem: An abandoned Ford Explorer has sat on a Park Circle median for at least two months. The backstory: Parking is tight along the 3400 block of Hilldale Place just north of Druid Hill Park, but resident Lillian Moore knew the red Ford Explorer had to go. Hilldale and Cotwood Place form a circle around a grassy median where two months ago Moore noticed the SUV - with its front fender wrapped around a tree. Since then, someone either pushed or pulled the Explorer to the top of the hilly median, but there it has sat with its dented fender but without license plates or other identifying information.

The Tax Foundation is out with its list of the most expensive counties for residential property levies. Amounts are for 2007. The highest, as usual, are the New York City suburbs, clocking in at a median annual tax of $7,000 or $8,000 per house. (Median means half the homes were taxed above those amounts and half below.) New York's Westchester County tops the list at $8,422. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois all have counties near the top of the rankings. The U.S. county with the least expensive median real estate tax is Apache County, Ariz.

No one would ever mistake the median strip of Interstate 95 for the Grand Canyon's breathtaking Indian Springs campground. Maybe an ancient Indian burial ground, what with all the carcasses of animals sacrificed to four-wheeled machines that menace mere feet away. Yet there's something wild and slightly adventurous about pitching a tent under the stars and having dinner by the glow of thousands of headlights. Maryland - that is you and I - owns the land between the northbound and southbound lanes of the artery that connects Maine to Florida.

A speeding car weaving between lanes on southbound U.S. 29 crossed the median south of Columbia and collided with a northbound car yesterday, sending both drivers to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Howard County police said an officer in an unmarked police car saw a 1993 Toyota Paseo speeding and weaving between lanes on U.S. 29 at 2:40 p.m. The officer tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver sped up, police said. As the Paseo's driver approached Rivers Edge Road, south of Route 32, the vehicle suddenly changed lanes, skidding across the grassy median and into the northbound lanes, where it was struck by a 2000 Toyota Camry driven by Joshua Jacobs, 39, of the 6100 block of Rusk Ave. in Baltimore.